Critics say deer herds have been decimated by overhunting.

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Pennsylvania hunters last fall posted the lowest deer-kill total in more than two decades.

And the buck harvest could be the lowest since the early 1960s.

According to deer-kill figures for the 2007-08 hunting season, released Friday by Pennsylvania Game Commission, hunters shot an estimated 323,070 deer — 109,200 antlered deer and 213,870 antlerless deer.

The total harvest was down 11 percent from the 2006-07 season and is the lowest since 1986, when hunters tagged an estimated 300,014 deer.

Hunters are required to submit to the Game Commission each year a report card for each deer they shoot.

Agency officials, however, figure there's only about a 40 percent compliance rate with that rule.

Since 1986, the Game Commission has estimated the total number of deer killed by hunters each year using a detailed formula that includes the total number of report cards filed, but also factors in the estimated compliance rate as well.

Prior to 1986, the agency calculated annual deer harvests only by counting the number of report cards hunters submitted.

The estimated buck harvest posted for the 2007-08 season is the lowest since the Game Commission began estimating the annual harvests and is a little more than half the record high of 203,247 posted in 2001.

The number of report cards hunters submitted for bucks last season — 40,482 — is the lowest number received since 1961. Hunters that year turned in 38,705 report cards for bucks.

"This is exactly what we thought the numbers would look like," said Bainbridge resident Stephen L. Mohr, who is president of Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania — one of the biggest critics of the Game Commission's deer-management program.

"The numbers are down because the deer aren't out there to kill."

Unified has been arguing for years that the Game Commission is too liberal with its hunting seasons and bag limits for deer, which, in turn, has led to a drastic reduction in Pennsylvania's deer herd.

In a news release Friday, Chris Rosenberry, the Game Commission's chief deer biologist, didn't blame last season's reduced deer kill on poor weather.

But he did cite a 50 percent reduction from the 2006-07 season to last season in the number of deer killed on the opening day of the state's traditional two-week firearms deer season.

That opening day, which historically accounts for more deer being killed than any other day of the season, is held each year on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. On that day last season, hunters across the state endured heavy rain and fog all day long.

"Report cards sent in by hunters show the antlered deer harvest on the opening day, Nov. 26, dropped more than 50 percent from 2006," Rosenberry stated in the news release.

"The firearms season's opening day antlerless deer harvest also dropped nearly 50 percent from 2006."

Take that day out of the equation, Rosenberry stated, and the 2007-08 deer season was normal for buck hunters and a bit better than normal for antlerless deer hunters.

"Daily (buck) harvests for the rest of the two-week season, Nov. 27-Dec. 8, were similar to 2006," he stated in the release.

"The antlerless harvest throughout the remainder of the two-week season increased and, in due course, erased some of the opening day's harvest shortfall," he stated later in the release.

Overall, the 2007-08 buck harvest was down 19 percent from 2006-07 and the antlerless harvest was down 5 percent.

Unified Sportsmen has been lobbying state legislators to pressure the Game Commission to reduce the impact of its deer management program.

The Legislature has no direct oversight of the agency, but it does appoint the eight members of the Board of Game Commissioners, and it determines when and by how much the agency's license fees can be raised.

Mohr said the 2007-08 harvest figures give Unified even more ammunition in its quest to force the Game Commission to change its deer-management program.

"Every time they have to report numbers like this, it pulls the noose a little tighter around their necks," he said.

E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com